Music
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Meet Phil Kline at Mass MOCA
Bang on a Can Composer
By: - Jul 23rd, 2022Phil Kline is at MASS MoCA next weekend. He says: I'm a bit of an outsider, not part of the "classical" world, or even the more sanctioned wings of the avant-garde. A composer without portfolio. Go hear his work in North Adams, Massachusetts!
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Conductor Dies During Performance in Munich
Stefan Soltesz Exits to the Music of Richard Strauss
By: - Jul 25th, 2022It has been a very warm week in Munich, yet a lovely one. Occasionally walking along Maximilian Street in the center of town, a breeze catches up and cools. The Munich State Opera, unquestionably the lead opera company in the world, is holding its annual July Festival, a chance to catch up with interesting productions from the last decade.Concerts too attract. Munich Regular Jonas Kaufman will return for his first post Covid appearance.
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Bass Player Michael Henderson at 71
Played with Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis
By: - Jul 25th, 2022Michael Henderson was just 20 when I heard him with Miles Davis. "Stolen" from Stevie Wonder the young bass player gave Davis the funk he was seeking during the aftermath of his seminal fusion, double album Bitches Brew. For five years and several albums Henderson was the heart and soul of the band. Cut loose in 1976 Henderson recorded seven album for Buddah Records, His last, for EMI was in 1983 although he continued to perform.
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Giulio Cesare in Egitto
The Handel Opera
By: - Jul 26th, 2022Handel’s 1724 opera masterpiece “Julius Caesar,” dealing with Caesar’s victories in Egypt in 48-47 B.C.E. shortly before his return to Rome and death in 44 B.C.E., may be considered a prequel to Shakespeare's theatrical masterpiece.
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La Boheme at the Munich State Theater
Otto Schenk's Set a Star
By: - Jul 26th, 2022Puccini’s music is beautiful and his notes sit particularly well in the human voice. Music written for the voice, as Puccini did, attracts audiences, especially when it is delivered by a stellar cast. Along with a rich musical mix, deep characterization draws us in. In the current revival of Otto Schenk production at the Munich State Opera, character is on full display amidst bantering bohemians and the flirtatious Musetta.
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The Inimitable Marlis Petersen in Munich
A Journey into Night and Our Psyches
By: - Jul 27th, 2022The Munich State Opera presents both opera and concerts during their annual July Festival. One star, Marlis Petersen, entranced at the Prinzregent Theater.
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Ariane & Bluebeard Composed by Paul Dukas
Produced by West Edge Opera
By: - Jul 27th, 2022Frenchman Paul Dukas’ 1907 opera “Ariane & Bluebeard” possesses compelling music and a libretto rich with symbolism and open to varied interpretation. Although advocates for the opera included many prominent composers of the day, its success was limited from the outset, and it has failed to find a place in the repertory. Plausible explanations exist. West Edge Oper, however, presents a scintillating interpretation of the highly worthy opera.
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Ted Rosenthal’s Jazz Opera, Dear Erich,
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
By: - Jul 27th, 2022The opera tells a true story of tragedy, love, and redemption in wartime Germany and Chicago, where Erich Rosenthal, Ted’s father, survived the war.
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Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Salzburg
Bartok and Ligeti Featured
By: - Jul 31st, 2022Pierre-Laurent Aimard chose as difficult a program as you could imagine. In the Grand Hall of the Mozartareum in Salzburg, the first half of his program focused on Bela Bartok’s small pieces done in grand style: Bagatelles, Etudes, and some Mikrokosmos. Ligeti followed the interval.
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Coraline An Opera Composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage
Produced by West Edge Opera
By: - Aug 01st, 2022Based on the award-winning 2002 novella by Neil Gaiman, composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Rory Mullarky have crafted an opera that mirrors the creepiness of the novella and the animated film of the same name. West Edge Opera offers superb voices and orchestra, fine staging, and clever, fanciful costumes in a scintillating production of this enticing work.
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David Geffen Hall Prepares to Open
Alibaba Money Gets Naming Rights
By: - Aug 06th, 2022Lincoln Center offers venues for the performing arts and concert programs. Is there an audience for what is offered? John Goberman, who founded Live from Lincoln Center, remarked when he left the staff a decade ago, that from his point of view–where the rubber hits the road, there was no audience any longer for classical music. He went on to produce live orchestral accompaniments to films.
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The Lion KIng
Broadway San Jose
By: - Aug 07th, 2022The character Rafiki, a mandrill, sings the goosebump-producing “Circle of Life / Nants Ingonyama” that introduces African voice, thought, music, motion, and rhythm. Meanwhile, the parade of absolutely stunning human-puppets-as-animals walks the aisles and fills the stage, becoming the most remarkable anthropomorphic array imaginable. At the opening number’s end, the applause at this performance was deafening.
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Into the Woods on Broadway
Extended to October 16
By: - Aug 07th, 2022By the end of the show, when we hear “No One Is Alone” and then the reprise of “Children Will Listen,” I challenge anyone to not be moved. The day I saw it, the audience was primed to adore it, with wild applause throughout the show. In many ways, this production deserved it.
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Sondeim's A Little Night Music
Julianne Boyd's Last Waltz at Barrington Stage
By: - Aug 11th, 2022For her last production, founding artistic director, Julianne Boyd again directed her favorite musical A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim for Barrington Stage Company. Yet again the theatrical magic evoked smiles on a summer's night.
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Knghts Orchestra at the Clark
Free Concert Celebrating Rodin.
By: - Aug 11th, 2022On Sunday, September 4 at 4 pm, the renowned Knights Orchestra returns to the Clark to celebrate the current Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern exhibition. This free outdoor concert takes place on the Fernández Terrace near the Clark’s Reflecting Pool.
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Phantom by F.W. Murnau at Elbphilharmonie
Wolfgang Mitterer Offers Original Score
By: - Aug 15th, 2022Phantom by F. W Murnau was presented at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany. This version of the film was accompanied by an original score by Wolfgang Mitterer.
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Sound at Wu Tsai Hall
Evaluating Acoustics at the New York Philharmonic
By: - Aug 16th, 2022In the whirlwind of announcements about the re-opening of David Geffen Hall, anti stain concert hall, Wu Tsai, we actually heard only one sound from the Hall, a single blast from a trumpeter in a hard hat. The Oklahoma State Univeristy orchestra will take up its residency and open the fall season on September 23rd. This may be the sound check.
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Georges Bizet’s Carmen
Santa Fe Opera
By: - Aug 19th, 2022As the title character, Isabel Leonard's voice is well suited - a warm, throaty, and resonant melodiousness. She excels in all of Carmen's famous arias like the Habañera “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (Love is a rebellious bird) and the equally memorable Seguidilla “Près des ramparts de Sévilla” (Near the walls of Seville).
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Anne of Green Gables at Goodspeed
A Work in Progress
By: - Aug 21st, 2022Overall, the performances are good. Juliette Redden as Anne has a strong voice and a winning personality. What is best is this Anne is a great role model – she’s creative, strong-minded, determined, optimistic and cheerful. If she has any doubts, they are well hidden. Though we do know she is seeking a family and acceptance.
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M Butterfly at Santa Fe Opera a World Premiere
Libretto by David Henry Hwang and Music by Huang Ruo
By: - Aug 22nd, 2022"M. Butterfly" is composed in the modern operatic style without the lush melodies and memorable arias of old. Yet, it is fitting. Western mode dominates Ruo's score, but Asian motifs are also introduced. Conventional western instruments comprise the orchestra, but when needed, Ruo extracts Asian ornamentation through use of 5-tone scales.
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Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner
Santa Fe Opera
By: - Aug 22nd, 2022The invariable element of this opera is its formidable music. Premiered in 1865, Wagner's heroic love story presented difficulty in orchestration and near insurmountable vocal challenges. The composer led the musical world to the brink of atonalism with uncommon chord structures and harmonies never heard before, that were largely unappreciated at the time.
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Oklahoma
At the Golden Gate Theatre,
By: - Aug 25th, 2022Broadway saw this musical revitalized in an edgy form in 2019. That production, directed by Daniel Fish, won a Tony for “Best Revival of a Musical” and is currently touring. The production is noted for other departures from the past. In keeping with the edginess of the new look, Act 2 opens like an acid rock concert. With a thick manufactured fog covering the stage, an instrumental medley blasts with deafening, dissonant distortion leading into the famous dream sequence dance.
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Manfred Honeck Conducts at Elbphilharmonie
Pittsburgh Symphony Shimmers
By: - Aug 26th, 2022Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony have developed a specialty: revealing the texture of sound. In a concert at Elbphilharmonie, an event in the orchestra’s 75th year of touring, they displayed daring and diverse sounds not often heard. The Maestro and the musicians find buried clues to the balanced mix of rhythms, dynamics in detailed performance directions.
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Chopin in Paris by Hershey Felder
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
By: - Aug 27th, 2022Hershey Felder currently plays “Chopin in Paris.” The great 19th century Romantic composer and pianist may hold special significance to the current imitator, as the living one is also of Polish extraction, though via Canada. The presentation holds to Felder’s usual high standards and wins praise from audiences.
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Xanadu the Musical
Produced by San Jose Playhouse
By: - Sep 01st, 2022What makes “Xanadu” fun is its light-heartedness and tongue-in-cheek humor based on ridiculously unrealistic happenings. It’s camp. It’s kitschy. It’ll make you smile a lot and laugh out loud
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